1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and device for using a measured error to determine coefficients to provide to an equalizer to use to equalize an input signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic tape cartridges include magnetic tape to store data to be saved and read back at a subsequent time. A magnetic tape drive writes the data to magnetic tape, typically as a set of parallel tracks, and subsequently a magnetic tape drive reads back the data. To read back the data, a magnetic tape drive typically comprises parallel read heads to read each of the parallel tracks, a drive system for moving a magnetic tape with respect to the read heads such that the read heads may detect magnetic signals on the magnetic tape, and a read channel for digitally sampling magnetic signals sensed by the read heads and providing digital samples of the magnetic signals. The digital samples are then decoded into data bits, and the data bits from the parallel tracks are combined into the data that was saved. The read channel typically requires an equalizer for each of the read heads to compensate for the change in the signal due to the magnetic recording properties of the write head, the magnetic tape, and the read head. Magnetic tape cartridges may be interchanged between tape drives, such that a magnetic tape written on one tape drive will be read by another tape drive. Variation in the response of the read heads to the variously written magnetic tapes may result in unacceptably poor read back of the recorded signals.
Adaptive equalizers implemented in magnetic tape drives solve a set of equations to find the equalizer characteristic that reduces the error between the desired and actual amplitudes. Thus, the equalizer might be computed at the beginning of use with respect to a magnetic tape, or recomputed a few times during use. Further, the desired amplitudes may be difficult to estimate. Hence, in many instances, the desired amplitudes are best estimated by employing a signal having known characteristics, such as a synchronization signal, or a data set separator signal, and not the random data signals.
In magnetic tape, the recording characteristics may not only vary from track to track, but may as well vary in a continuous fashion along a track or tracks. Thus, a selected equalizer characteristic, although satisfactory at the beginning or at some specific track location of a magnetic tape, may lead to an increase in data read errors at some point along the track. Further, different tape drives from different manufacturers may write data sets to a tape cartridge having different magnetic properties, i.e., different signal-to-noise ratios. Moreover, the tape drive is required to read tapes that are manufactured by several different vendors, all having slightly different magnetic recording properties. Yet further, data sets may have been written to the tape cartridge under a wide range of environmental conditions, which differ from the conditions at the time the data is read.
To address the problems mentioned above, a least mean squares (LMS) algorithm can be used to adjust the coefficients of an equalizer that operates on the read-back signal at the output of the analog-to-digital (A/D) converter and provides continuous adjustment of the equalizer characteristic. However, in current implementations, a relatively large number of tap coefficients of the equalizer, must be fixed, e.g. as many as 30-40%, in order to ensure stable operation of the adaptive algorithm. This limits the ability of the equalizer to fully adapt to changing conditions. If a tape drive is operating in an environment where data sets can have significantly different magnetic reporting properties, it is desirable to have most equalizer coefficients adapting to the read-back signal.